There are growing calls for Australia to address the ‘very serious threat’ Chinese social media giant TikTok poses to Australians.
The short-form video app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is one of the fastest-growing platforms in the world, with more than 170 million users in the US and 8.5 million in Australia.
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would give ByteDance six months to divest the app and sell it to a company based outside of China.
Australian opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said on Sunday that TikTok will remain insecure unless its relationship with Beijing is ‘severed’.
His comments came after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday that the Australian government was not expected to follow the US.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) said on Thursday the Australian government was not expected to follow the US in banning TikTok
“When Congress and the US ban TikTok, do you think we’re going to do the same here in Australia,” asked WSFM radio host Brendan Jones.
“We will take advice but we have no plans,” Mr Albanese replied.
“You always have to keep national security concerns at the center, but you also have to recognize that for a whole lot of people, it gives them a way to communicate.”
But Mr Patterson urged the government to “take action”, saying the app was a risk to Australia’s democracy and national security.
In a speech on Sunday, he said the coalition did not yet support an outright ban on the platform, but that the government should support growing efforts in the US to split TikTok’s US operations from its Beijing-based parent company.
“If the US successfully removes TikTok from ByteDance, Australia should try to do the same,” the Victorian senator told the ABC’s Insiders program.
‘The end that I hope for is that Australians can continue to use TikTok, but just without the risk of their data being misused and without the risk of the Chinese Communist Party putting their thumb on the algorithm to pump disinformation into our democracy.
“I know that intelligence agencies are not saying to the prime minister, ‘There is nothing to worry about with TikTok – there are no worries at all.’
‘We know that’s not the case.’
The platform, whose users are predominantly teenagers and young adults, is among Australia’s most downloaded apps.
But many politicians and security analysts in Australia and overseas have become increasingly aware of it, citing concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over user data or use it for propaganda and to sow division.
TikTok said it will not hand over data to China and is seeking to remove misinformation from its platform.
US legislation to tackle TikTok has gathered significant support among US politicians and was overwhelmingly passed by the lower house of Congress.
TikTok has encouraged US users to contact their local politicians to show their disapproval through an in-app message.
If the bill also passes the US Senate, President Joe Biden has indicated he will sign the legislation into law, opening up the legislation to a legal challenge on the grounds that it interferes with First Amendment rights to free speech.
Chinese government officials have also voiced their opposition to the US push to force TikTok’s sale, signaling to ByteDance that they would rather see a ban enforced.
An outcome in which ByteDance refuses to divest the app for $160 billion, forcing its ban and thereby reducing its value, would be “revealing,” Senator Paterson said.
‘It would be a very irrational choice, but it would be quite an illustrative choice because I suspect that ByteDance would act as an extension of the Chinese government, not as a commercial entity.’
The senator also urged the government to introduce new transparency requirements on TikTok and other platforms, such as Chinese social media WeChat, as recommended by a Senate committee investigating the risk of foreign interference through social media.
TikTok is one of the fastest growing platforms in the world with more than 170 million users in the US and 8.5 million Australian users. Stock image
“They need to be transparent about the relationship they have with foreign governments and about the guidance they receive from foreign governments to interfere with content on a platform,” he said.
“These recommendations are there for the government to implement at any time … I really hope they do.”
But when asked if the matter should be raised when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits Canberra next week, Senator Paterson said it was ‘not a high priority issue’.
‘The Foreign Minister (Penny Wong) and the Prime Minister have a number of issues to raise with (Mr Wang), particularly the death sentence for Australian citizen Yang Hengjun.’